MLB has released next season's schedule. The Tigers open up on April 5 in KC. The Home Opener is April 9 versus Cleveland.
Here is the link.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Week 23: is it a late August?
I guess this is called "regressing to the mean". The Tigers started the month of September by going 6-0, their longest winning streak of the year. They continued the month by falling back to earth and losing 5 straight (regression can be tough). This team impressed me by being able to play through August without sliding disastrously toward irrelevance. Maybe they forgot that August was over (or maybe the calendar was turned back in the clubhouse.) Fortunately neither the Twins or the White Sox were able to take advantage of the slide.
The culprits of this slide are not the hitters. They actually batted .305 for the week (the 2nd best week of the season) and scored 4.5 runs/game. There have been many weeks where that would be enough to win most of their games for the week. But in those weeks the our pitchers didn't allow 5.8 runs per game as they did this week.
The starters had an ERA of 4.54 this week on 17 runs in 33 2/3 innings. Verlander, Robertson and Porcello each had good starts of less than 3 earned runs. But Washburn, Jackson and Porcello (again) each had starts where they allowed 3 runs or more. Washburn allowed 7 hits plus 3 walks in 5 IP, Jackson allowed 8 hits with 1 walk (but 3 of those hits left the park) in his 7 IP and Porcello allowed 7 hits on 0 walks in his 6 IP during his first game of the week.
The Bullpen had its worst week of the year, by far. They allowed 18 runs (3/ game) for an ERA of 9.35. They allowed 18 hits and 13 walks in only 17 1/3 IP to set the table for the 5 home runs they let go out. Based on my records the only reliever that did not allow a run to score was Ni. Rodney gave up 5 runs in 3 1/3 IP for the week. Galarraga came in to relive Robertson and gave up 3 in 1 1/3 IP. The list goes on and on. If you want to really dissect the rotting corpse that was the Tigers' Bullpen this week then check out Billfer's autopsy at Detroit Tigers' Weblog.
On the positive side of life there was only one official error charged this week.
On the even MORE positive side, as I mentioned above, the White Sox and the Twins each had problems of their own and could not catch up any ground. And there isn't that much ground left for them to make it up on. Going into Monday's game the Tigers have only 20 games left to play in 2009. If the Tigers stay at a .500 pace they will finish with 86 wins and 76 losses for the year. For the Twins for the White Sox to catch them one of those teams would need to start playing at almost an .800 winning pace (far above what they have done so far this year). I don't see this as likely. However all three teams play each other for the rest of the month. Detroit plays 6 more games against Minnesota and 3 more games against the White Sox.
Here are the current standings.
The culprits of this slide are not the hitters. They actually batted .305 for the week (the 2nd best week of the season) and scored 4.5 runs/game. There have been many weeks where that would be enough to win most of their games for the week. But in those weeks the our pitchers didn't allow 5.8 runs per game as they did this week.
The starters had an ERA of 4.54 this week on 17 runs in 33 2/3 innings. Verlander, Robertson and Porcello each had good starts of less than 3 earned runs. But Washburn, Jackson and Porcello (again) each had starts where they allowed 3 runs or more. Washburn allowed 7 hits plus 3 walks in 5 IP, Jackson allowed 8 hits with 1 walk (but 3 of those hits left the park) in his 7 IP and Porcello allowed 7 hits on 0 walks in his 6 IP during his first game of the week.
The Bullpen had its worst week of the year, by far. They allowed 18 runs (3/ game) for an ERA of 9.35. They allowed 18 hits and 13 walks in only 17 1/3 IP to set the table for the 5 home runs they let go out. Based on my records the only reliever that did not allow a run to score was Ni. Rodney gave up 5 runs in 3 1/3 IP for the week. Galarraga came in to relive Robertson and gave up 3 in 1 1/3 IP. The list goes on and on. If you want to really dissect the rotting corpse that was the Tigers' Bullpen this week then check out Billfer's autopsy at Detroit Tigers' Weblog.
On the positive side of life there was only one official error charged this week.
On the even MORE positive side, as I mentioned above, the White Sox and the Twins each had problems of their own and could not catch up any ground. And there isn't that much ground left for them to make it up on. Going into Monday's game the Tigers have only 20 games left to play in 2009. If the Tigers stay at a .500 pace they will finish with 86 wins and 76 losses for the year. For the Twins for the White Sox to catch them one of those teams would need to start playing at almost an .800 winning pace (far above what they have done so far this year). I don't see this as likely. However all three teams play each other for the rest of the month. Detroit plays 6 more games against Minnesota and 3 more games against the White Sox.
Here are the current standings.
| Week 23 | Games back | Elimination # | |
| Tigers | -- | -- | |
| W. Sox | 5.5 | 15 | |
| Twins | 6 | 14 | |
| Indians | 15 | 6 | |
| Royals | 19 | 1 |
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